Hey there, folks. It is Friday, May first, and authorities in Florida have identified the remains found earlier this week, and yes, in fact, they are the remains of a second missing doctoral student been missing since the last month in Florida. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This is the story we kept an eye on. We were even hopeful for Robes. Two students from Bangladesh
go missing. Couldn't make sense of it, had hopes that maybe they'd even run off together, quite frankly star crossed lovers. They have now found the remains of the second student, Robes, and it took them a little while to make a positive identification, and we'll get into some of the details of why, and they are pretty.
Graphic they are.
So we now know that the remains of twenty seven year old Nihita Bristi have been confirmed to have been found.
She was one of two.
Missing University of South Florida doctoral students. They had been missing since April sixteenth. They were reported missing the following day, and it took some time for authorities to piece together the puzzle of what potentially happened. Initially, they didn't even suspect foul play, but unfortunately Samil Lemon, who was also twenty seven years old, his body was found on a bridge overlooking Tampa Bay and then several days later they found his body exactly one week ago today on Friday.
On Sunday, they found the remains of another body nearby in the water.
But it took.
Them five days today until they were able to positively id the body of Nihita Bristi. And look, the details of how they found her remains are now coming to light and how they were able to eventually confirm that in fact it was her.
They were able to.
Confirm through DNA and they had to actually go through some dental work that she had been done to finally confirm that, in fact, they did find the remains of Nihita Bristi. And this is just one of these mysterious, incredibly tragic stories coming out of Florida because it was Lemone's roommate. They believe Hisham Abugarbea who was twenty six years old, who police have now charged with two counts of first degree premeditated murder with the weapon in the
deaths of these two doctoral students. The big glaring question is the why they don't have the why, but we are now able to piece together through what police and detectives are giving us the how. And it is incredibly disturbing, Babe, to just learn some of these details. And we are hearing now that Nahita Bristi was actually found. We had been talking about dive teams looking for her body, but it turns out it was two fishing kayakers who found her body instead, and.
They were.
Quick to call police when they actually snagged a bag in the water, so they were throwing their fishing lines and they ended up having to go further into a mangrove area of this fishing area where they had kayaks in and they actually described the smell and that is when they went in closer to remove the fishing line find the plastic bag. It had been slightly opened, and they said they could tell immediately it looked like a
human body, and they did the right thing. They called law enforcement and for the past several days now, law enforcement have been looking for a way to try and connect the remains found in this bag to that of Nihita Bristi, and they were able to do so today And this is just look the family had been warned, but this is certainly incredibly sad information. Just to know for a fact that this was in fact this missing doctoral student.
Yeah, that was I mean, we saw it going this direction. I guess nobody's a surprise. I don't know how much hope was being held out, but but yeah, that's I guess the family kind of knew this was the news that was.
Coming, and so they have now officially contacted her family to release the bodies for religious reasons. Back to the families who both happened to live in Bangladesh. But we're also look, we had had some of the searches that police were able to uncover from the roommate Abu Garbea, but we're getting some new details. And look, these are
we've talked so many times. We've covered a lot of unfortunately these types of cases, and yes, it often is the cover up, the active idea or the planning of the cover up that ends up undoing the suspect in terms of evidence that eventually comes out in court. But we're hearing some of this now in terms of some of the searches that were made before, during and after when police say he murdered his room mate and his friend.
Yeah, we see this a lot. Well, criminals will catch on eventually, but don't google how do I get rid of a body right after you kill somebody? It's going to catch up with.
You, yes, And so look, we know that Abergaebea has been charged with unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to report a death with intent to conceal, tampering with physical evidence, false imprisonment, and battery in connection to the desk, in addition to his premeditated murder charges.
So this is difficult.
And police have described the details of this investigation as nothing short of gruesome, and that is really the only way to describe this because we now know that this act, or at least police say this act, was carried out with a sharp object, most likely a knife, And we know that this was an elaborate attempt to conceal because we know some of these searches that were taking place while this crime was being committed, and that is really that has been some of the more damning, damning evidence
that has come out in this case. And we now know also that Leman was bound in his hands and his feet. Like, just hearing some of these details, it's just hard to get your head around how this all unfolded, and how a twenty six year old student why he would feel the need to do this to his roommate and her friend and his friend.
No, I mean, we don't have a motive. But apparently he had some troubles, He had some history of questionable behavior and people were concerned about him, and I guess we'll learn more about that. But yeah, there is no motive at this.
Point, none at all.
And so look, this has been a disturbing detail some of the searches that we know that the roommate made in addition to finding out how to dispose of a body, but he also searched topics like whether a knife can penetrate a skull. I don't know how any defendant gets around searching that. Have you ever, Like, when you look at what you have searched, why would anyone search that if not for a motive.
In a murder.
No, we've seen defense lawyers explain far worse than that. Actually, but they'll find a way, they'll have something. Oh maybe they won't. But yes, it always seems like that there's no reason, there's no that makes zero sense for that to for you to ever google that.
Yes, and in addition to ober Gabea's cell phone having searches like whether or not a knife can penetrate a skull, or if a neighbor could hear a gunshot, and of course how to dispose of a body, or what happens to a body when you put it in a dumpster. All of these very specific searches. Some of these were done before days before the students disappeared, and so his cell phone, by the way, had been wiped clean. That's
also an issue oftentimes. We've even seen searches about can the FBI can police find text messages I erase?
What happens to a cell phone that's been white clean?
I think we've all learned now, at least in covering these types of cases, if you search anything on your computer on your phone, there is no search cleansing operation that can be done that won't be retrieved or won't be able to be retrieved by detectives, period, end of story. How people don't know this yet is kind of beyond me.
Yeah, they keep doing it. We've the last several high profile trials we've covered all involved something along those lines where people are literally googling, how do I get away with murder, and yes, that's pretty damning evidence. So yes, they haven't learned yet, and.
It looks like well, fortunately maybe perhaps for police and for detectives, maybe they'll never learn because somehow people always think they're going to get away with it. But look, as investigators continue to try and find the why, and look, oftentimes we don't get that answer. That is one of the elusive questions so many people ask in a situation like this where two incredibly brilliant lives were cut unnecessarily short. Their family, his family, her family, They want to know why.
And there are also a lot of questions being asked by the family in terms of security. Where was the security some family members are asking, and they're saying, look, at this point, how could somebody who had a documented history of mental illness and clearly their roommate, his roommate, Lemon's roommate who is being charged in this case, Abrogae Beya, has absolutely had a long history of mental illness and certainly run ins with police and run into with his
family violent history. And so it is fair that their families are now asking how could this young man have been allowed to be in an off campus apartment and be connected with a roommate who had problems with the law, whose family members didn't even want him visiting their home. How was he not on anyone's radar? And how were these two young lives cut short for no reason whatsoever, at least nothing that police can come up with at
this point. So when we come back, we'll give you the latest on this investigation, where the case stands against this twenty six year old, and what the families of these two young doctoral students want from this community now, And welcome back to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we now just received word from Florida officials that they have in fact identified the remains that were found last Sunday of the second missing doctoral student at the
University of South Florida. These two young, twenty seven year old promising doctoral students went missing. Initially we heard from the university from police that they didn't suspect foul play, but unfortunately that quickly changed when conversations and frankly interrogations of the roommate started to leave big questions with police. And unfortunately, when another roommate said, hey, you know what, I saw my other roommate taking some boxes out to
a trash compactor right here on the property. When police went to go look at that trash compactor at the apartment complex where Lemon lived along with his roommate, and they found his student id, his wallet, his glasses, and clothing soaked in blood. That moment changed everything for investigators and they knew that foul play was possible and probably likely. In fact, we got a word that what was the change in the investigation midweek where they said, yes, we don't suspect foul plays.
Suddenly it was endangered.
The two students were listed as endangered, and then just days later they found the body of limon All on that bridge in plastic bags. Two days later they find remains in Tampa Bay, and yes, today unfortunately they have officially identified those remains as Nahdah's bristies, and certainly her family was expecting the worst. They were anticipating this. They were told by police that enough of her blood had been found in that apartment that they did not believe
she was alive. They've known for a long time that their loved one was almost certainly dead, but still to get the confirmation today is still a significant step in closure, and now they're angry they want justice, and that is understandable.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know where we'd be right now if this criminal, this alleged criminal, hadn't been such an idiot. I mean he he. The reason they found the boy's body is because they could trace exactly where the roommate drove. They saw the car go exactly to that bridge and stop and go back. So Robes, I mean, I don't know where we'd be even if they if he was. He's so awful at this and he left
crumbs and traces everywhere to get to this point. The Robes now the family, they I don't know what role the school played in off campus housing. I don't know how all that works down there, if he had a choice in it at all, if he had made complaints, I don't know. Um, I'd be curious to know. But this just makes no sense right now.
Yeah, they're asking for an I think this makes total sense. They were asking for an investigation into how the university places students, how they're placed with roommates.
And you know, you think about this.
I have a daughter who you know, goes to university and oftentimes you do take a lottery, so to speak, as to who your roommate's going to be. You're operating under the presumption and assumption that these students have been vetted. I know that there's no way of knowing what someone's mental health might be, or what their ulterial motives could be, or what they might.
Do if pushed in a certain position.
It's impossible to know, and so I guess it does beg the question what is the role of the university, What is the role of anyone, maybe even his own family. And his brother has said publicly now since this has happened that he deeply regrets not pursuing charges. He dropped charges after he saw his brother act violently and erratically multiple times. He had a restraining order against him. It wasn't renewed. But he looks back now and thinks, my god,
the warning signs for everywhere. And it's very easy to Monday Morning quarterback a situation like this, but when lives that are at stake, this is one of those things where you know, yes, when you're a family member, you might feel guilty or obligated to cover for someone, but in these types of situations, you see what it can lead to if you don't speak up, if you don't say something if you don't call it to attention. And granted they did to an extent, but maybe they didn't
go far enough. And unfortunately, now too young folks are dead for no apparent reason. You can't even come up with a reason why these two young people could have upset this young man enough where he would have planned and plotted their demise where he spent days making searches and planning and potentially luring them to take them to
murder them. It's a it's an incredibly difficult situation that doesn't have a lot of good answers, and I know we want them because we want to prevent a crime like this, But it's possible to know what was inside this young man's head at this point, and he has not spoken, he has not said what his motive was, and he certainly hasn't offered any sort of defense yet.
But we will continue to follow the story. Obviously, the legal process has to continue, but we just wanted to jump on and let you know that, in fact, we have been covering the story that yes, those remains that were found in Tampa Bay are in fact the remains of Nihita Risti, and we will continue to follow the story. We appreciate you as always for listening to us I ami Robach alongside TJ.
Holmes. We will talk to you soon.